24 PEECEPT AND PRACTICE. 



ration, by their evolutions, he sits in military style, 

 and annoys bystanders and passers-by, by causing 

 his horse to bespatter all near him by throwing the 

 mud in their faces by his forced and absurd cur- 

 vetings. 



These are two absurdities we have seen in eques- 

 trians ; but perhaps our tyro avoids both, and pa- 

 tronises a cabriolet. He sees and hears that high 

 action is the rage, so, provided the action be high, 

 he considers he has got what all must admire. He 

 is not aware there is a vast difference in the style of 

 such action, so it will not be improbable but he gets 

 a brute with similar action to those greatest of all 

 possible beasts that we daily see in hearses and 

 mourning-coaches — the only duty for which they are 

 fit. Their action is as heavy as any of the horses we 

 daily see in Pickford's vans, without any of the good 

 qualities to be found in them. Now a horse with 

 high and grand action should go as if he stepped on 

 india-rubber. We should, figuratively speaking, be 

 unable to detect his foot on the ground ; whereas 

 the other brute brings his great platter feet down 



